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The ascension of Vice President Kamala Harris to grow to be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in lower than 48 hours is an unprecedented incidence in American politics.
Her victory in November, if it occurs, would even be a particularly uncommon occasion.
Solely 4 individuals in US historical past have received a presidential election as a sitting vp.
Two of these races, from greater than 200 years in the past, featured Founding Fathers operating in a special election system.
Again then, the vp was the runner-up within the presidential election. The bitter elections of 1796, which was received by John Adams, and 1800, which led to a tie and was determined when the Home of Representatives picked Thomas Jefferson, led to the adoption of the twelfth Modification, after which electors voted for president and vp as separate positions.
A number of a long time later, in 1836, Vice President Martin Van Buren, who was often known as the “Little Magician” for his quick stature, received the race to succeed two-term populist President Andrew Jackson. Van Buren was the primary president born after the Declaration of Independence. Financial institution failures and a monetary collapse marred his presidency, and Van Buren misplaced his bid for reelection in 1840 and in addition failed in an tried comeback with a 3rd social gathering years later.
And that was it for practically 150 years. Vice presidents grew to become president after the loss of life of a number of presidents and the resignation of 1, however no different particular person received the White Home from the vice presidency till 1988, with George H.W. Bush, who succeeded two-term President Ronald Reagan.
The present president, Joe Biden, was vp beneath Barack Obama, however he didn’t run to succeed Obama – which we’re studying created some frustration on Biden’s half when Hillary Clinton misplaced to Donald Trump in 2016.
If Harris loses this yr, she should endure one of the crucial humbling experiences in US politics, overseeing the counting of electoral votes in her function as vp for a presidential election she misplaced. Three different vice presidents have endured this indignity, all in extraordinarily contentious circumstances.
In 1861, Vice President John Breckinridge oversaw the counting of electoral votes that made Abraham Lincoln president, at a time when Southern states seceded from the nation relatively than settle for Lincoln’s 1860 victory.
Vice President Richard Nixon narrowly misplaced the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy and oversaw the counting of electoral votes in 1961. Nixon would return to victory eight years later. Vice President Al Gore received the favored vote however misplaced the election in 2000 after a controversial Supreme Courtroom determination, and he oversaw the counting of electoral votes in 2001 that made Bush’s son, George W. Bush, president.